Vadodara, Aug 2: Former Gujarat Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela is likely to join Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), headed by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar soon, the NCP state president said today.
“Vaghela and Praful Patel, NCP in charge of Gujarat and union minister, have been discussing it for quite some time and the NCP high command will take decision on it soon,” said Gujarat NCP president Jayant Patel alias Boski. He was here to nominate Nilesh Patel as president of the city unit of the party.
Dismissing speculations that Vaghela might be asked to take up the responsibility as Gujarat NCP president, Patel said his services might be utilised at the national level. 71-year-old Vaghela, who had served as Union Cabinet Minister of Textiles from 2004 to 2009, is feeling isolated in Congress after his defeat in Lok Sabha polls in 2009, sources had said.
Though Vaghela had denied reports of resigning from the Congress party, political experts feel that he might cross over to NCP.
According to sources, the latest trigger for Vaghela came when he and his supporters were excluded from the much-hyped “pol khol” campaign launched by the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee last week aimed at exposing corruption in the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. PTI
